Seneca Women Research Paper

In the beginning, Seneca women were authoritative, dominant and abundant in territory. They “had possessory rights to all cultivated land within the tribal area”. They also controlled distribution of the food given to the members and residents in long houses and tribes. The women’s power over the agriculture reflected in their way of life as well. They worked on fields, keeping it in good condition and growing crops. In addition to having power over distribution and land, the Seneca women also had political and economic power. They made sure that their voices were heard by the public and other powerful forces by controlling what went on their land and by reserving the right to elect civilian rulers. Seneca women were also able to exert economic …show more content…
This soon came to the attention of the Anglo-Europeans, who desperately wanted to take away the control the Seneca women had, strip them of their power and lower their position in society. “By the 1780s the Senecas had already experienced the most common disruptions of agricultural village life: warfare, disease, and trade”. When the Senecas began to die from diseases, they began to lose their confidence. The Anglo-Europeans took advantage of their unfortunate circumstances and attempted to reach their goal (although not completely successful on their quest) by first laying waste to the land of the Seneca women. Next, they wanted to replace the women in agriculture with men. Seneca women were to follow white women traditions and ways of life by working indoors doing household works, caring to the needs of children and men, knitting, spinning and weaving and wearing bonnets (like traditional white women). The Anglos wanted women to abandon their way of life so that others could have power over them and steal their control and eventually, silence their voices. One way that the Anglos wanted to end women’s domination over politics, agriculture and land was through teachers and missionaries. A group called the Quakers were sent to Seneca to “teach men agriculture and women the “useful arts”. Men were to learn how to plow while women were to learn how …show more content…
Women worked in the fields, wearing traditional tunic and leggings, living in log huts with earth floors, and cooking a pot of venison stew for the family's main meal. However, the Quakers believed that women should be indoors while men do yard work. So they demanded that the men themselves stop the women from completing their traditional duties and allow them to take up domestic duties of the household. Eventually, the Quakers opened a Female Manual Labor School where young women were taught to card and spin wool, knit stockings, cut out and make garments, wash and iron clothes, make bread, do plain cooking, and perform "every other branch of good housewifery, pertaining to a country life". This was unaccepted and the Senecas refused to submit to any